


Float On Home

by TelepathicTeaTime



Category: Persona 3, Persona Series
Genre: Bittersweet, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Love Confessions, also i hate how you can't write anything sweet for these two without it also being horrifically sad, but she is also very gay for all the beautiful and wonderful girls in her life, don't get me wrong this is absolutely a shinjimina fic, head's up for some language i guess, so just an fyi on that, this fic also features a very bisexual minako
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-10-09 01:17:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17397320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TelepathicTeaTime/pseuds/TelepathicTeaTime
Summary: Minako injures her ankle during an exciting day at volleyball practice with Rio. As her team captain helps her walk to the station, they unexpectedly run into one of Minako's roommates who insists on giving her a ride home.





	Float On Home

Minako could hardly believe it. She had been fighting shadows for what, almost half a year now? Not just the small fry weeping around in Tartarus either, but the powerful ones who rose up every full moon too, those awful monsters created for the sole purpose of bringing pain and destruction to the world around them. In she and her team’s efforts to stop them, she had been swiped at by their cruel, hooked claws and battered under their heavy fists. Her body had crackled and seized under their bolts of lightning, her skin blistered shiny and raw under the roar of their flames. In the very least, Minako had to give the ugly, insufferable monsters their due. For all the savage ass kickings she delivered like presents each time she and SEES stormed into Tartarus… the shadows could dish back some serious hurting of their own as well.

That's why her current predicament was so… _stupid._ Curled up in a tiny, frustrated ball of pain on the gym floor, her eyes shut tight against the tears brimming against her lashes hot and angry, the junior could hardly believe how a mere, literal misstep like this one could cause her so much pain.

A stupid, dumb, _sprained ankle_ for god's sake! Not even sustained while running and slicing and dicing her way through Tartarus at that, which might have been at least a little understandable, but at volleyball practice of all places to boot.

She and Rio had been having a little one on one scrimmage after the rest of the team had long since gone home, initially meaning just to warm down their muscles and chat a bit more, but for some reason, maybe they both still had a surplus of energy left to burn, or perhaps they had simply been trying to impress the other with her skills (in Minako's own case anyways, she knew it was bit a both) what had begun as a laid back cool down exercise had quickly ramped up into an all-out match.

Gentle wrist bumps gave way to punishing forearm blasts, and the ball’s cheerful bounce from side to side vanished as it became a near nonstop blur in the air. All of their joking and chatter had stopped as the game progressed, either girl too focused and too out of breath to keep up with any idle chit chat. The only sound left in the gym was the persistent back and forth smack of the volleyball, their labored breathing, and their gym shoes squeaking against the polished floor.

Minako wondered later if maybe that been the problem. Had the floor been too clean, too slippery? Had she not tied her shoes tight enough to keep her foot from sliding around in them? Had she been keeping too close of an eye on Rio, who looked her best when she was out on the court giving it her all, with her dark ponytail swishing out behind her and her eyes lit up with a determined fire, instead of minding her own form?

Minako supposed it didn’t really matter, and with everything that would happen later, she would even go as far as to admit that even if she would have known how to avoid it, she would have still just let it happen, anyways.

She had made a mad dash across the court to leap up and spike back the fierce serve Rio had sent exploding over the net, having every intention to both impress her captain and also not lose to her, but knew she had royally fucked up the second her foot had left the ground. There had been a slight wobble in her step when she jumped up, and in a moment that wobble had swiftly and without remorse turned into a neat fold of her ankle. There was nothing neat about the moments immediate following, though, all her weight crashing hard upon her foot in a way that her pain-blurred brain could only declare as simply being

_Holy shit what the fuck this is the worst this hurts so fucking bad oh my god what the fuck paaaaainful-_

“Minako! Minako-chan, hold on!”

Rio slid frantically to her side just as she lifted her face from the floor to hiss ruefully at the ceiling, “Owwww!”

Her team captain’s dark eyes were sharp with worry as she gently eased her into a lounging position off of her battered, misplaced foot, her movements as careful and precise as someone who had seen similar injuries many times before. “Here, I’m going to take your shoe off to help with some of the pressure, okay? I’m sorry, I...t-this might hurt a bit.”

Though she tried her best to bite her lip shut and keep it trapped inside, Minako couldn't help but let out a small hiss of pain, and in a flash Rio's hand was tightly clasped in her own. “Squeeze my hand as hard as you need to, okay?” She commanded, her voice only wavering at the edges a little bit. “Don't try to hold all the pain back inside or you'll make yourself faint.”

Blinking away the colorful spots that had momentarily overtaken her vision, Minako didn’t like the way Rio looked just then, the way her face was scorched with self-blame and responsibility for something that’d been a simple accident, every cruel word she was thinking about herself swirling behind her eyes like an ugly storm.

Imagining that she was taking all the pain she was feeling and crumpling it into a tiny ball that she could easily toss aside, Minako let herself lean heavily against Rio with a breezy laugh. “Wow, Rio-chan! It looks like I’ve really... _fallen_ for you this time, huh?”

Her mouth still twisted in a worried grimace, Rio simply stared back at her in wordless response. It wasn’t until Minako wiggled her eyebrows and cracked a shit-eating grin that her pun finally seemed to sink in, and Rio gasped at her in shock.

“M-minako-chan, you can’t be serious! How can you be joking around- and-and not even _funny_ jokes at that- when you just got seriously hurt!” She scolded her loudly enough for it to echo throughout the gym, but Minako could tell by the way Rio was puffing her cheeks and biting down on her lip that she was trying really hard not to smile. Her eyes seemed clear of whatever dark thoughts had been clouding them just moments before, and that alone was enough for Minako. She squeezed her friend’s hand, and her own pain felt just a little less, too.

“Your...your ankle is definitely sprained, you can see it swelling it up already.” Rio sighed, pushing some of her black hair behind her ear with a worried look. “What you need most right now is an ice pack and some aspirin, but…” She looked up at the clock tick-tick-ticking away up on the far gym wall and furrowed her brows in frustration. “Ugh, this late in the day the school nurse is already gone and the infirmary’s locked up, too. Minako-chan, I’m really sorry. It was my idea to stay so late, and for us to have one last stupid game. This was-”

“Really fun!” Minako quickly chimed in, clasping Rio’s hands in between both of her’s tightly, and a little sweaty too. At Rio’s confused, dubious stare, she insisted with a genuine smile, wincing only just a tiny bit, “Rio-chan, I really mean it! I was having a lot of fun before, y’know, _this.”_ She gestured lithely toward the offending ankle, which as her friend had pointed out, was definitely two times the size of other one and an ugly bright purplish red, “But _this_ was also just an accident. I got a little carried away and tripped is all!” She freed one of her hands to playfully bop Rio in the arm. “So stop looking at me like you purposely took a lead pipe to my ankle, alright? Trust me, Rio-chan…” and Minako thought of all the times Shadows had slammed her into the ground, or tore at her skin with biting gusts of wind, or attempted to liquify her mind using the forces of unspeakable dark magic, and winked with confidence, “I’ve survived much worse than this!”

 

With there being so little Rio could actually do for her at the school, the volleyball captain was adamant, almost violently so, in carrying all of Minako’s things and helping her get back to the dorm once she’d found the strength to stand. Though Minako deeply appreciated the assistance with walking, well, more like hobbling as she couldn’t even apply the faintest amount of pressure on her bad foot without seeing stars and pitching to the ground, to not even be able to carry her own stuff made her like a spoiled brat.

“Rio-chan, come on, Rioooo-chaaaan! This is way too much! I just sprained my ankle, I’m not crippled, you know? I can at least carry my own bags!” Minako whined as they made their way towards the monorail station, her arm slung tightly over the other girl’s shoulder who in turn supported her around the waist. Swaying heavily from Rio’s back was both of their school bags, and slung from her free shoulder was Minako’s sports bag, reeking of sweat. In a white-knuckled grip in her opposite hand, she clenched her own, the veins in her forearm popping bright and blue under the effort of so much weight.

Besides for a few beads of sweat glistening under her bangs, though, Rio’s face suggested she was completely unfazed by the burden she’d  willingly undertaken. Regarding Minako from the corner of her eye and with an elegant arch of her brow, she merely asked in response, daring her to answer truthfully, “What? Do you think I’m too weak to handle this?”

“No!” Minako huffed and turned her face away, pouting. “Of course not. You’re one of the strongest girls I know, Rio-chan. I just want to help, is all.”

With a smile on her lips and a flush in her cheeks at the compliment, Rio continued to help her friend navigate through the crowded street with steady poise. “Well, you can help me by stopping your complaining about me helping you, alright? Aaaaand maybe when your ankle’s better you can treat me to Wuck after practice one day. With an order of _extra_ fries too!” She offered cheekily, and they both fell in a little closer together, laughing.

“Alright, sounds like a deal to me!”

  


Despite the circumstances, the girls were actually having a rather pleasant walk (well, limp in Minako's case) as they made their way to the station. Maybe it was because of how physically close they had to be, arms wrapped around the other in a tight side hug, their heads bobbed close together like they had secrets to share, but Minako found herself easily joking and gossiping with Rio despite the awful pain in her ankle.

“Oh my gosh! So Kenji asked you out to go get noodles with him this weekend?!” She cheered as they made their way past the grocery store, nearly knocking out an unsuspecting passerby as she excitedly pumped her fist into the air. “Rio, that is so awesome! You totally said yes, right?! Oh, oh my gosh! If you see a noodle hanging from his lip are you gonna lean over and kis-”

Blushing from her neck all the way up to ears, Rio didn't give Minako a chance to finish her teasing as she began to furiously swing her gym bag at her, flames burning in her eyes. “Minako, if you say another word I will make you run laps at practice until you die! I mean it! I’ll make you wish your ankle never gets better!”

“Hahaha, I'm sorry Rio! I think it'd be kinda cute, actually! You know, like that movie with the cartoon dogs- _ahhhahaha!”_

Rio had abandoned trying to bludgeon her in the stomach with her bag to using the hand on her hip to pinch and poke sharply at her waist, but it was obvious there was no real anger in the attack as she was laughing just as hard as Minako was. “H-hey now! You’re starting to sound too much like the rest of the team! I thought I told you to stop! Stop it, stop it-”

And then she seemed to glance something over her shoulder, something that cleared the smile right off her face and turned her playful jabs into a tight, protective grip on Minako's arm. Her hand was frigid, and there was a noticeable tremble in her fingers.

“ _Go!”_ She breathed sharply, quickening their pace as hurriedly as she could considering Minako’s predicament. “Minako-chan, I know your ankle's in bad shape, but we really need to go. _Right now._ Lean on me more and try to hop a little faster…!”

Alarmed, Minako turned her head to see what had affected her friend so severely, but Rio promptly butted their heads together to stop her, instead hissing under her breath, “Don't look at him! If he knows that _we_ know he's following us, he might...I don’t know, freak out or something! You’re never supposed to look back at them directly!”

“A guy is following us?!” Minako snapped, immediately more pissed off than frightened at the news. _What kind of asshole would target a girl with an injured foot and another weighed down by a bunch of bags?_ ! _Well, maybe any violent sleez would at an opportunity like this, but still! I still have one good leg left and both of my fists! I’ll show him!_

She tried to struggle out of Rio's grip to get a look at the creep herself, but her captain simply propelled them forward faster, practically dragging her along in a painful near-skip at this point.

Rio nodded once but kept her eyes trained strictly forward, her words barely pushing past the thin, worried line her mouth had become. “Yeah, some tall creep in the grocery store watched us walk past the window and suddenly dropped all his stuff and started to hurry towards the doors. He looks _so_ shady, he probably saw your limp and thought we'd be easy prey. Just keep moving and maybe he won't catch up-”

Minako let out a bark of a laugh that was more murder than mirth in sound. “If this guy tries anything, especially on you,  the only _praying_ he'll be doing is that I decide to kill him quickly rather than dragging it out!”

“M-Minako-chan! Shhh!”

The two girls’ frantic bickering stopped at once at the sound of rapidly approaching footfall, and then a voice rasping in gruff annoyance behind them,

“Hey, what the hell is going on here?”

Minako felt Rio stiffen under her arm at the sharp edge of the voice, in fear that some random man had abruptly decided to make their business _his_ , but Minako would have recognized that voice in a swelling sea of others, and her temper dissipated as quickly as it had flared up, a matchstick in the wind. It was a voice she looked forward to hearing every single time she returned to the dorm, a voice that had recently begun to loop through her brain over and over again like the best song she ever heard while she was sitting in class or trying to sleep or enjoying the sunshine or doing just about _anything else_ away from it, and despite Rio's best efforts to hustle them along and get away from the weird man apparently chasing them, Minako nearly threw out her neck with the excitement she tossed her head back to greet him with,

“Shinjiro-senpai, it’s you! Hiiii!”

Shinjiro Aragaki, for his part, did not seem nearly as thrilled to see her as she did him in that moment, his stormy gaze already closely scrutinizing her exposed, swollen foot with disdain. “What happened there?” He demanded curtly, nodding his head toward it in lieu of pointing directly, his hands shoved deeply into his coat pockets where they usually were. “And why are you trying to run when you’re injured like that, huh? You lookin’ to make it worse, or something?”

Minako opened her mouth to answer him when she felt Rio’s hand tightly squeeze her shoulder, her nails like sharp moons on her skin through her school blazer. When she turned to face her friend, usually so proud, so determined, she instead found a girl whose face was awashed with fear and uncertainty.

“Minako-chan, do you... do you really know this guy?” She whispered from just out of the corner of her lip, refusing to take her eyes off from where Shinjiro still stood a few feet away, as if he was going to attack them the second she glanced elsewhere, “You didn’t just call him senpai for real, did you?”

“Huh? What are you…?” Rio’s words were a knife twist in her guts, her lack of trust exceptionally more painful than the sprain she had suffered earlier. Minako felt her smile falter and flicker, but not wanting Shinjiro to see, quickly propped it back up with a rich, confident laugh. “Rio-chan, oh my gosh! Of course I know Shinjiro-senpai! We live in the same dorm together, actually. He’s…”

A few descriptors floated through Minako’s mind just then. _The strongest, most badass fighter I’ve ever seen! The best cook to ever step foot in the kitchen! The guy I think I might have fallen completely head over heels for since we started hanging out together all the time!_

Rio blinked at her prolonged silence in confusion, and Minako blurted, “A _really good_ friend of mine!” and then to address the obvious tension poisoning the air between the three of them, she added with a playful nudge of her elbow in Rio’s side, “Trust me, Shinji-senpai is not as scary as he looks. He’s a _real_ softie at heart. Isn’t that right, Shinji-senpai?”

_Did calling him Shinji instead of Shinjiro actually make him seem cuter? She thought so, anyways..._

Minako batted her eyelashes at him sweetly, begging him to play along. He only stared at her hard in response, his mouth twisted into a tight scowl, but when she flickered her gaze between Rio and him and back again, he seemed to catch on and let out a deep, heavy sigh.

“Y-yeah, Minako-san here said it. Uhhh, I’m…” He agreed with an embarrassed wince, slowly pulling one his hands free from his pockets to flash the lamest, most awkward thumbs up Minako had ever seen in her life. He didn’t even try to smile. Rio merely gawked at him by her side. “I’m a real _swell_ guy…”

For a few seconds, there was only the sound of traffic flowing by on the street, and some birds calling out on a nearby rooftop. It was nothing less than absolutely excruciating for everyone involved.

In red-faced support, Minako quickly flashed an enthusiastic thumbs up of her own, scrambling to remedy the situation and play heroine like she normally did during the Dark Hour. “Uhhh, yeah! That’s right! You’re the best, Shinjiro-senpai!”

The other people attempting to use the sidewalk went out of their way to avoid the awkward exchanging of thumbs up at all costs, parting around the trio like the waves of the red sea. Rio still didn’t say a word and with a cold chill running down her neck, Minako couldn’t help but think solemnly to herself,

_So...this is how the Dark Hour feels during the day…_

“I’m also going to be the one taking her home from here, alright?”

_Huh?_

Shinjiro was suddenly looming tall right before them, his hand outstretched expectedly towards Rio for both Minako and her belongings. As her volleyball captain stared in uncertainty at it, her brows furrowed in wary thought, he continued a little more softly, “Look, I really appreciate you looking out for Minako-chan and helping her out this far. The fact you were able to carry her and all her stuff shows that you’re real tough, and I’m not mad that you were trying to protect her from me, either.” He actually began to smile here, subdued but sincere. At the sight of it, some of the tension in Rio’s shoulders seemed to drain away, just a bit. In Minako’s case, it simply stirred up a warm flutter of butterflies right in her stomach, and she couldn’t help but break out into a wide, happy grin of her own.

“Minako-san gets herself into a lot of trouble, so it’s nice to know she’s got someone like you watching her back. So I gotta thank you for that. But like she said, we live in the same dorm and I was about to be on my way back, too-”

“Then what were you doing in the store just now? I saw you put all this stuff down and just like, chase us out. ” Rio’s words were not a direct accusation, but they might as well been with how harshly she spat them out. _Chase?_ Not follow, or check up on, but...chase?

Minako squeezed her arm. “Rio-chan…” she whispered, trying not to feel hurt, or angry with her friend but failing miserably. A dull chill in her heart had clipped her tummy’s butterflies of all their wings, leaving her stomach feeling kind of sick with the sudden emptiness left behind. Why was she still acting like this? Was her own trust in Shinjiro not enough to change Rio’s mind? Why did she distrust him at all when she didn’t even know him?

Shinjiro didn’t seem to mind her suspicions at all and answered her as if she had simply asked him for the time. He seemed so well adjusted to being questioned, to being doubted, that it only made Minako’s heart ache more.

“I was buying groceries to cook dinner for tonight, actually. But when I saw you two walk by, and that Minako was obviously hurt,” he stared right into Rio’s face, unflinching, “Making sure she was alright was a lot more important to me than buying some bell peppers-”

The girl in question breathed a loud, over dramatic sigh of relief at the news. “Oh, thank god, I hate green bell peppers-”

Without missing a beat, Shinjiro interrupted her in turn, “I know that, you moron. That’s why I was out buying the red ones, the ones you actually _do_ like. The green ones were all we had left at the dorm and I wanted to make sure you actually ate your vegetables for once-”

“Shinji-senpai, that’s not fair! I _do_ eat my vegetables, you know-”

“The vegetables in your ramen don’t count-”

“What!? I was going to say I eat my vegetables when they’re _not_ green bell peppers, not just when they’re in my ramen! And why don’t ramen veggies count?”

“Because the broth packs them with all that extra nasty ass salt-”

“But they taste good!”

“What? Are you saying the vegetables I make don’t-”

“No!” Minako nearly screamed in indignation at his accusation, “Your food is the absolute best in the whole wide world, Shinjiro-senpai, and you know that!”

And then under the combined weight of his exasperated stare and the alarmed stares of the passerby’s on the street over her shriek, Minako took a deep breath and pouted with cheeks inflamed with embarrassment, “Shinji-senpai, even if you had just decided to cook the green peppers, I _still_ would’ve eaten them, and liked them a lot! Because if anyone could find a way to make green bell peppers actually taste good, it would be you.” Leaning hard against Rio for support, she folded her arms to show that the argument was over and that she was done humiliating herself for the time being. “So there!”

It was then Minako realized that Rio had remained decidedly silent throughout her and Shinjiro’s entire back-and-forth. She lifted her head, worried that her friend would still be glaring daggers at her crush, or scrutinizing her like she was an idiot, but was shocked to see a warm smile on her lips, and a look of deep understanding in her eyes. When Minako met her stare, Rio let out a laugh and shook her head.

“You two…” She mused, looking between her and Shinjiro like she had just solved a very difficult math equation, “I get it now. I see how it is.”

There was a knowing gleam in Rio’s eyes that made Minako blush. It looked familiar, like the same look she wore on her own face while teasing Rio about her crush on Kenji. It was a playful, understanding gleam that seemed to twinkle out in morse code

_Girl, you’ve got it so baaaad-_

Giving Minako’s shoulder a firm squeeze, Rio dropped their gym bags and backpacks at their feet, and after popping the knuckles of her strained and exhausted hand, she offered it out to Shinjiro. “Sorry if it’s...you know, sweaty,” She forewarned him with a small flash of a smile. “I’m Rio Iwasaki, Minako’s volleyball captain and friend. Nice to meet you.”

Delighted at the scene unfolding before her, heart swelling with pride and affection, Minako happily chimed in, “Best friend, actually!”

Rio took the correction with pleased stride, and repeated it for herself as if savoring the phrase on her tongue, “ _Best_ friend. And as her best friend, I’m expecting you to take very good care of her, alright?” Her eyes momentarily flashed a bit dangerously, but then her gaze softened up once again as she gently added on, “But it seems like you already do.”

Shinjiro returned her grin easily, and gripped her hand firmly as if she hadn’t just been treating him suspect mere moments ago . “Shinjiro Aragaki. And yeah, you don’t gotta worry about that one bit. I’ll keep my eye on her.”

“Good.” Rio nodded once, smiled a little to herself, and nodded again. “ _Good.”_

“Text me when you get back to the dorm so I know you made it home safe, alright?” She requested of Minako as she slipped her backpack back over her shoulders and gathered up her gym bag, ready to start heading home herself.

Minako flashed her a cheery peace sign, now supporting herself against Shinjiro. His side was so warm, so cozy, and the delight she felt being under his arm must have been shining from every pore of her face with the Rio giggled looking at the two of them together. “No problem, Rio-chan!”

She had turned her back and had been about to stride away when she seemed struck by a sudden thought and called out over her shoulder, “Oh, and Minako?”

“Hmm? Yes, Rio?”

“You better heal that ankle up quick! You’re the best player we have and I’m going to need you by my side out on the court, alright? As your team captain, that’s an order!” She tried to pull a serious, demanding face, like the one she used to wield like a weapon on the other team members, but it was ruined by the amused crinkle in her nose, the gentle turn of her lip.

Laughing, Minako’s peace sign evolved into a clean, swift salute towards her best friend. “Roger that, coach! See you back on the battlefield in no time! _Promise!_ ”

And with a final grin and a wave of her fingers, Rio was gone, leaving Minako and Shinjiro to themselves.

 

“Alright, Shinji-senpai. You’re gonna have to umm, slouch a little more than usual so I can reach your shoulder, okay? This is gonna be a little trickier with you than it was with Rio!”

Getting right to business, Minako went to angle herself a little closer to his side so that she could sling her arm around his shoulder and continue her limp/jump hybrid from before, but the older boy nearly glowered at her in disbelief.

“No, that’s not happening.” He rebuffed her bluntly as he gathered up both of her bags in a single fist, undeterred. Compared to the hefty axe he lugged around Tartarus, they must have been feather light to him, so Minako was surprised when he offered her the strap to her school bag. “Actually, you mind wearing this? It’ll make things easier if it’s out of the way.”

“Not happening?” She echoed back, already shouldering her backpack without a fuss. She knew him too well to think even for a second that he was going to actually make her walk on her bad foot, but did not see how else he was going to get her home, unless-

A taxi, rolling by as slow and as yellow and black as a bumble bee in summer, beeped its horn just down the street and she inquired curiously, “Oh! Are you gonna call us a taxi, senpai? I can help you pay for it if you are!”

Shinjiro seemed amused at her guess and let out a low chuckle. “Heh, yeah...a _taxi.”_

Minako was about to turn to retrieve her wallet from her bag, serious about helping him pay for the ride home, when suddenly she noticed him turning his back on her and sinking to a one-knee kneel right there on the sidewalk. For a moment she thought that maybe he had stooped down to tie the laces to his boots (wait, did they even have laces or were they zippered? She suddenly realized she had never seen him without them on) but then he called for her from over his shoulder, “Well? Are you getting on or what?”

Not quite understanding what was happening just yet, Minako looked around them every which way, not seeing a taxi anywhere in sight. “But, senpai...There’s no taxi here yet. Do you want me to flag one down for us while you tie your shoe? They usually stop for me pretty quickly-”

“Yeah, I’m sure they do.” Shinjiro cut her off with a huff. “And no, I’m not tying my shoes. They’re slip ons...”

_Well, that was one more Shinji mystery solved!_

“And yeah, your ride is already here. It’s _me.”_ He jerked his chin toward his back, getting impatient from where he waited on the ground. “Don’t try to argue with me about it, alright? Just hop on, already. My knee’s getting all cold and cramped down here…”

Minako felt her whole face flush in realization, and quickly shuffled over to where he still knelt on the pavement. “O-oh! Well, yeah, of course! If...if you say so, senpai.”

Her palms already sweating, she gingerly rested them upon his shoulders, and felt electricity tingle all the way from her fingertips to her shoulders. He was really offering… he was really going to give her…

_An actual piggyback ride!_

If Minako was being honest, she had been daydreaming about what it’d be like to get a piggyback ride from Shinjiro since the first time she’d met him. He was just so, _so_ tall, and strong too! She figured it’d be one of the best ones she ever gotten, well, the only one she’d gotten since way before her parents had died, but… _wow!_ She briefly wondered if her head would poke through the clouds, if the ground would seem like it was miles away, when Shinjiro’s voice called her back to the present moment, and the piggyback ride at hand, or more accurately, afoot.

“Be careful with your bad foot when you jump up, okay?” He was reminding her sternly, his expression something serious, but warm too as he spoke. “I’m not gonna jostle you around much and make it hurt more, so don’t…” He coughed shyly and turned his face away to the cement, “Don’t be scared.”

With his tone, it was hard for Minako to tell if this was something Shinjiro was simply telling her to do, or almost _pleading_ for her to do.

With a sweet, low hum, she wrapped her arms snugly around his neck and shoulders and reassured him quietly right in his ear, “I’m _never_ scared when I’m with you, Shinjiro-senpai.”

And then at feeling her small hop upwards against his back, Shinjiro had caught her knees in the crook of his arms and rose swiftly to his feet, as easily as if she wasn’t clinging to him at all, began to take them home. Minako felt her heart soar along with the rising of their bodies, like a glowing pink bird in flight. This was even better than she’d initially imagined! She wasn’t just up in the clouds, oh no…

Snuggling a little closer against Shinji’s back, sinking into the steady rocking of his stride, she realized dreamily that she was over the moon.

Shinjiro was silent for a good minute as he walked them down the street, and Minako figured that was how he would stay, but then she heard him mumble, “That’s… that’s good.”

“Minako-san, you…” He took a deep, shuddery breath, and tried again, “I don’t want you to be scared. Of me... _for_ me. Ever. You’re their leader, you have to stay brave. You understand what that means, right?”

Minako quirked her lip in curiosity at his choice of words and picked her head up from where she’d been resting her cheek against his shoulder. “For you, Shinji-senpai?” She questioned back, trying to lean left, and then right, to catch a glimpse of the look on his face. He was currently hiding it pretty well behind his messy mop of dark hair, but she could already guess how his expression looked- very lonely, and full of self-loathing, the way Shinjiro always seemed to look when it came to talking about himself.

She wasn’t going to let him sink himself into that low, dark place today, though. In fact, as long as she was able, Minako wanted to make Shinjiro smile, and laugh. She wanted to fill his days with so much fun, maybe whatever deep wounds still bleeding from his past would scab up, just a little bit. And if she was able to make things just a little bit nicer, a little bit brighter for him now, maybe whatever black clouds he seemed to see in his future would thin out and finally let some sunshine filter through warm and golden instead.

Minako hadn’t told anyone else in SEES yet, not even Koromaru, and especially not Shinjiro himself, that this had become her most important reason for fighting to rid the world of the Dark Hour once and for all. She wanted the future to be peaceful, and filled with joy for Shinjiro, she wanted it to be everything his past hadn’t been, _should’ve_ been for him. But most of all…

She wanted to make it a future they could be happy together in.

So putting on her best offended tone, she starkly accused him, “Oh, I see how it is, Shinji-senpai! You think I’m worried about crushing you by riding on your back like this, huh?” She playfully tweaked his cheek between her thumb and index finger, and taunted him dangerously, “Is this your… _roundabout_ way of saying I’ve been enjoying too much of your cooking lately, hmmm? Is that it?”

A strangled, perplexed noise catching in his throat, Shinjiro snatched her pinching fingers in his own and stared at her like she had just accused him of not liking dogs.

“W-what?! What kind of bullshit is that? I’m not saying…! You aren’t…!” His face was flushed an even deeper shade of red than his jacket as he tried in vain to sputter out a response, before finally hurling at her, quite lamely at that, “I’ve carried bags of sugar heavier than you at the store, you idiot!”

Minako responded in a beat, quite smoothly at that, “Not as sweet as me, though, right, Shinji- senpai?”

He stared at her hard like he was trying to be mad, like, _really_ giving it his best shot to be genuinely irritated with her. But Minako could tell by the quiver in his scowled lip and the twitch in his knitted brow that it was a task he was failing spectacularly at.

When she smiled impishly at him and booped his nose, a quick, light _boop!_ right on the tip with her finger, he fell apart completely and let out a loud, rowdy laugh that made a few of the people sharing the sidewalk with them jump in surprise.

“Jeez, you really are something else!” He declared when his laughter had finally died back down and he could speak without wheezing. His eyes seemed brighter, his face a bit warmer than it had been before, and Minako revelled in secret, internal victory at the sight. “If this is how you’re gonna be, I’m never carrying you anywhere ever again.”

“That’s fine!” Minako agreed breezily, “Next time, I'll be the one to carry you instead, okay, senpai?” She promised him, flexing her arm to show that she meant business. No muscles were visible under her school coat by any means, but she continued to show off regardless. “Because I am totally strong enough to pick you up, no problem! As you can see, my Evoker isn’t the only gun I carry around in Tartarus! _Buh-bam!”_ She snapped up her other arm to flex as well, but with no solid grip on Shinjiro, nearly went toppling backwards off of him with the weight of her backpack. With an alarmed squeak and arms flailing, she quickly latched tightly back on to him. Once her heart had stopped jumping wildly in its cage, she smoothed out her bangs and shot him a cool, confident smile. “See? I’m _so_ tough.”

Shinjiro merely snorted in response to the spectacle occurring on his back. “Yeah, yeah.” He mumbled, but there was an amused lilt to his voice that gave away just how much fun he was actually having with her, “I've seen you in action in Tartarus. I don't doubt it.” Then his gaze flickered down to her bruised balloon of an ankle and back up to her smiling face, and he added quietly, “You really are one tough girl.”

“Haha! If Mr. Tough Guy himself says so himself, it must be true!” Minako took his praise in delighted, pink faced stride, and emboldened by his compliment, even went as far as to boast, “I bet I could beat you in a fight, senpai. I would knock you flat in a second flat, _pow_! You'd never see it coming!”

She gently nudged his jaw with her fist, a mere ghost of the punch she was actually capable of delivering, and burst into laughter at the flat, exasperated stare Shinji gave her in return.

“Don't press your luck,” he warned her with a roll of his eyes, “Mrs. Tough Girl.”

His words gave Minako pause, and she tried her best not to smile at him devilishly. _Oh ho! She was_ definitely _going to run with this one!_

Instead, she arranged her features into something a bit more angelic, and a little shy.   _Cute as a button._ “Oh, well… umm, senpai?”

“What?”

“Well, it's just that…” Biting her lip in careful thought, she mused her realization out loud, as innocently as she could manage, “If you're Mr. Tough Guy and I'm Mrs. Tough Girl… wouldn't that mean we're married?”

As if right on cue, somewhere nearby a church began to toll its bells, the sound golden and bright across the orange and pink sky. Minako could’ve whooped her gratitude right out loud to the heavens at that, but forced herself to blink doe-eyed and serene instead.

_A saint of innocence, with devil horns below her halo._

Shinjiro sputtered into an immediate coughing fit beneath her, momentarily stopping his long strides to catch his breath and keep himself from keeling over.

 _It was a one hit k.o!!!_ Minako realized gleefully, and could contain her laughter no more.

“W-what are you talking about?!” He finally stammered at her once he'd caught his breath and readjusted her weight on his back, his pace a little more hurried than before as if he was attempting to outrun the hot, burning flames of his own humiliation. “Seriously? _Marriage?”_

His over exaggerated wince only made Minako laugh harder, and she warned him with an impish grin and a bat of her eyelashes, “Hey now, Shinji-senpai, don't sound so excited about it now! You'll frighten me away before we even get to our vows.”

Shinjiro groaned with annoyance at her further teasing. “The only thing I'm gonna _vow_ to do with you is leave your ass here on the sidewalk if you don't shut your mouth right now, got it? Man, what’s gotten into you? You’re so-! You are so _annoying!_ ”

At this point, Minako already knew him too well. He could speak as gruffly as he wanted, and glare daggers from under his beanie all he wanted too, but these facades were not enough to disguise how genuinely sweet he was, how much he actually enjoyed this routine they willingly played out every single time they were alone together.

Perhaps it was a mere novelty to him, having someone actually be brave enough to poke fun at him and push him around a bit for once, especially a girl not just younger than him but half his size too. It seemed obvious that most people who weren’t Akihiko or Mitsuru had trouble finding the courage just to speak with him normally at all, let alone tease him outright. Maybe she was just the first to do so, and that was that.

But what Minako really hoped for as that the reason Shinjiro senpai seemed to not just mind her antics, but welcome them completely, was because it was her specifically.

She wanted him to like her- No, that wasn’t right. She tried again.

She wanted him to like _like_ her...No, that still wasn’t it.

Trying to gather her thoughts, Minako let her gaze linger on the back of Shinjiro’s head, at his black hair falling out from under his beanie in a messy tumble, and thought very hard about the beautiful mind working beneath it all.

It was obviously a mind full of painful memories, of nightmares that seemed to plague him daily. Parts of it that should’ve been dedicated to making friends and trusting others, of going to school and looking forward to the future, had instead been filled with the grim knowledge of how to fight viciously and without hesitation out in the streets, how to hide any and all of his emotions under a constant mask of cold indifference.

Yet it was also a mind that refused to bend under the awful weight of all that suffering. It was a mind that always seemed to stray in concern for others, if they were eating and resting up properly, if they were trying to push themselves too hard, and what he could do to help them out without making a huge fuss about it. It was a mind that was well aware of the great comfort a good, warm meal could bring, and was exceptionally well versed in how to put such a meal together. It was a mind that was delighted by animals with tiny paws and soft fur and big shiny eyes, a mind rattled by the idea of them suffering for any reason at all.

The more she thought it, about Shinjiro, about everything she knew about him and everything else she was so so _so_ excited to still learn about him, the more obvious the words Minako was looking for became, and her stomach felt as if she had just had something very sweet, very warm, and very bubbly to drink, her heart rising high on the fizzy feeling too.

As if he had finally felt her staring holes into the back of his brain, Shinjiro looked back at her and asked in immediate concern, “Hey, Minako, are you alright? You got a weird look on your face…”

 _I love you._ Minako thought back at him, trembling under the realization. Now those were the words that felt right, those are the words she wanted to tell him right now more than anything. _I love you. I love you, Shinjiro Aragaki I love you so so much…_

“I…”She licked her lips, tasting the confession waiting to be said on them. It was as good as the food Shinjiro cooked for her, maybe even a little better. She wanted to see how the words tasted on her tongue, being said out loud. “Shinjiro…” She _really_ wanted to know how sweet, how delicious it would be to have him say the same words back to her in return.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, gathering every scrap of courage she could find in her entire being, but when she opened her eyes and went to finally open her mouth… she realized exactly where it was they were, and that they were not alone. They were currently stopped on a street corner close by to the shrine they frequented together at night, sometimes alone, sometimes with Koromaru racing about at their heels. She was still clutching at his back while her ankle still throbbed in pain, and Shinjiro stood there carrying her without a word of complaint, like this was nothing out of the ordinary. As for everyone else around them, though-

It seemed like their situation was too much for them to bear. She noticed right away how the crowd at the crosswalk gave them a noticeably huge berth of space, more willing to balance themselves on the curb close to speeding traffic than stand anywhere near her and Shinjiro. She could feel their eyes on them too, judgemental and mean, but whenever she'd go to challenge their staring with her own undaunted gaze, their eyes would always be elsewhere- on their phones,following passing cars, the oh so interesting tops of their shoes.

This observance broke the romantic spell she’d been under immediately, like glass under a hammer, and she felt the warm, gentle flutter in her heart begin to give way to a more fierce, unforgiving heat. _Anger._

“Hmph!” She had actually pouted out loud, her hair nearly bristling on end with irritation as the light finally gave them the okay to move along, and with his long, powerful stride, Shinji had quickly left everyone else trailing far behind the flapping of his coat. He seemed to be able to sense the shift in her mood quite well.

“Jeez, what was their problem?” Minako snapped once they were a good distance away, and mostly alone on the street again save for the occasional fluttering newspaper or dead-eyed Lost swaying off to the side. The sight of the zombies, that they were popping up more frequently than ever with the coming of early October’s full moon, only made her more stressed, more angry feeling. “Staring at us like we couldn't see them! Jerks!”

Shinjiro's voice was flat, an absence of oxygen to subdue her fire as he deadpanned, “Tch. They don't even matter. Drop it.”

And Minako tried to listen to him, she really did. But… it made her so mad, no, it _pissed her right off,_ the more she thought about it. She knew why those strangers had been staring so ruefully, muttering under their breaths at the crosswalk. It was the same reason why Rio had been so anxious earlier in front of the store, her hand clammy with fear in her own.

They were all scared of Shinjiro.

Minako wasn't dumb, she knew Shinjiro's thuggish impression was of his own design, that it was his way of assuring no one fucked with him when he wasn't looking for trouble to begin with, but... _still._ It was one thing for the seedy punks behind the station where he frequented to steer clear of him, with their itchy fists and knives glinting like serpent eyes from their belts. Minako didn't want them anywhere near him lest she chalk up her first few murder charges, but for normal people to avoid him like he was death itself wrapped up in a red coat and beanie, for her own close friend to see him and immediately brand him as someone dangerous, a _threat_ even… it just wasn't fair.

They probably stared at his hands and wondered what kind of awful violence he inflicted with them, how many people had fallen beneath them. They would never know how skillful those hands were in the kitchen, carefully preparing delicious food for the friends around him like it was nothing. They probably couldn't imagine those hands affectionately petting a rescued shrine dog, giving the best behind the ear scratches and cheek rubs until said dog's tail was about to wag right off with joy.

And they would certainly never know the quiet, tender affection those hands were capable of the way Minako did. How carefully they could drape a jacket around her shoulders during a late night talk at the shrine, or brush against hers walking home from a sad and quiet visit at the station, the tight and almost desperate way his fingers intertwined with her own.

To get to know Shinjiro was such a beautiful, amazing gift. How could anyone else not see that in him? How could they all be so blind, so ungrateful?

He must have felt her fuming on his back, or maybe she had begun to dig her nails a little too sharply into his shoulders, a panther preparing to kill, because suddenly, completely unprompted, he piped up,

“So...volleyball, huh?”

Minako blinked, caught off guard by the almost breezy tone to his voice. He sounded genuinely curious about her choice of sport club.

“O-oh, well, yeah! Volleyball!” She parroted back to him like a dope, and desperate to save herself from the downward spiral threatening her good mood, to save face in front of the senpai was she was in love with, began babbling, “I really enjoy it a lot, sprained ankles aside, hahaha! For awhile it was just me and Rio, because she'd lash out at our teammates a lot, but it wasn't because she was a bad captain or anything like that, I promise! It was just because she had a lot of internalized self-doubt and anger, which she's been able to work through by being more honest with herself and her own feelings, and she was even able to tell her crush that she liked him! They might even go on their first date together this weekend, how sweet is that? You know, Shinji-senpai, the sport itself is really fun and all, but getting to be friends with Rio and watching her grow and be happier is my actual favorite part about volleyball. Makes me sooo happy that I didn't join tennis anyways, or I might have never even met her, hahaha!”

Realizing she'd been talking way too much and with near childlike enthusiasm, Minako clammed up at once, beat red in the face. _Save face?! Your plan to save face in front of senpai was to ramble like an idiot?! Way to go, girl! Way to-_

Shinjiro sounded pleased, even like he was truly proud of her as he nodded his head in satisfaction at her whirlwind of an answer. “Heh, way to go. It's good to find things you're passionate about, and people to care about. That's the kind of shit that really matters, you know? Gives you something worth fighting for.”

He peeked back at her and his smile was big enough to reach his eyes, filling them with a glow that Minako felt warming up her own face. “Are you only in volleyball, or do you go to any other clubs? You seem like a pretty busy girl most days. Tell me about it.”

And with her eyes shining bright and her heart all aflutter, she did.

She told him about the quiet days she spent working with Saori in the library, how sometimes she'd get so distracted by the older girl's dazzling lilac eyes, and the loneliness hanging like cold mist in them even when she smiled, that she'd miscan entire stacks of books or slip her elbows clear off the checkout counter and go toppling to the floor.

Her nose was flared in proud determination as she reaccounted her and Bebe's efforts in sewing club, all the hard work and heart and soul her foreign friend was pouring into a kimono that'd enable him to stay here in Japan, before admitting sheepishly, “I feel kinda lame sometimes watching him work so hard on something so complex while I just mess around with smaller, more cutesy projects, you know, senpai? Like the stuff I make turns out really nice with Bebe's help, but...it's nothing special like his.”

“I don't know about all that now,” Shinjiro had mumbled in immediate disagreement, sinking his hand deep into his coat pocket before pulling out a gently balled up fist. A small, shy look on his face, he opened his hand as gently as a lotus in bloom to reveal the tiny knit rabbit she had gifted him with after their date at the film festival.

“To make you feel better about the dog and the waterfall!” She had insisted later back at the dorm, pushing the colorful bunny right into his hands, partly so he couldn't refuse, partly because seeing him get so emotional over small animals made her want to hold his hands in her own forever.

Minako couldn't believe he had actually kept it, let alone carried it with him everywhere in his pocket like some kind of lucky charm.

As if reading her thoughts, or maybe it was the thrilled to bits expression on her face, Shinjiro promptly shoved the doll back into his pocket and huffed, “It's...uhh, don't you know… rabbits are good luck, aren't they? Besides it really is, um… _cute.”_ He reached up and pulled his beanie more over his eyes as he further admitted in an embarrassed mumble, “Kinda...reminds me… of-”

A light bulb went off bright and urgent in Minako’s mind, and oblivious to what Shinjiro had been trying to say, his muttering lost to the noise of the street anyways, cheerfully blurted out, “Fuuka! That’s right!”

Shinjiro squinted back at her, perplexed. “F-fuuka? Uhh, actaully, I was going to say-”

Minako babbled further, on a roll of excitement that could not be stopped, “Yeah, I can’t believe I almost forgot to mention that me and Fuuka are in a club together too! The cooking club!”

Recognition lit up in Shinjiro’s eyes at the news, and he mused aloud, “Oh, yeah. Now that you mention it, she did bring up that you were the one teaching her to be a better cook that night I had to help her out…”

“Yeeah,” Minako drawled out sheepishly, remembering how many mistakes Shinjiro had to reprimand Fuuka for and correct on his own that evening. The egg shells, the oil, the...well, literally everything the quiet girl had managed to get her delicate hands on. But then she also remembered how Fuuka had taken all his critique in stride, how instead of giving up in teary-eyed failure like she might’ve done when they first started out in the kitchen together, she instead continued to give her best effort all the way through to the end. Minako beamed brightly at the memory of Fuuka and Shinjiro standing side by side before the finished dish, at the quiet, exhausted pride that had been on her face.

“Fuuka rocks!” Minako declared resolutely, with deep fondness. “She’s so smart and determined, there isn’t anything she couldn’t learn to do if she set her mind to it.”

“All she needs is to keep practicing,” Shinjiro agreed, and then smiled at her. “You two stick together and she’ll be cooking circles around me in no time.”

“It’s funny you say that, because we actually are planning to host cooking club again next year too! Shinjiro-senpai, if you come back to finish your classes, you should totally join us! The three of us would be totally unstoppable together!”

Minako suggested it without really thinking about it, too caught up in the happy daydream of it actually happening to give what she was implicating much thought. She could see Shinjiro clear as day in his school uniform, handsome as could be in that black blazer, and wondered if the teachers would let him keep his beanie on the way they let Junpei keep his cap. He’d look so sharp, so mature standing in the home ec lab compared to how she and Fuuka usually looked fluttering around it like drunken canaries, their cheeks dusted with flour and their fingers scrambling for recipe notes.

Maybe under his guidance, his experience, they’d even perfect that multi-tiered cake they’d tried once before. She was so excited for her senior year already! She was so excited for-

“Next year…”

Shinjiro muttered those two words as quietly, as solemnly as an inmate strapped to the electric chair, like they were still familiar on his tongue but had lost all actual meaning otherwise. Minako could see the gloom that she’d already been successful in chasing away once today settle back over his shoulders as comfortably as an old crow upon a grave.

Worried that she'd upset him by implying he wouldn't graduate on time with Mitsuru and Akihiko, by bringing up his strained relationship with school at all, Minako had leaned over to apologize and instead found him looking back at her with a phantom of a smile on his face.

“Yeah, we'll see.” He offered her simply in response, and nothing about it sounded like a promise he intended to keep at all.

Something about that frightened Minako, made her insides feel kind of cold and empty, but if Shinjiro could plaster on a smile for her sake, to end their walk home on a good note, she could do the same for him too. “Yeah,” she nodded back at him, her smile sunny enough to make up for the dark clouds in his, “We’ll see.”

  


They were almost to the dorm now. Minako could see it looming tall and familiar just blocks away, the place where she had first awakened to the unbelievable power residing within her body, the place where she had begun to feel like maybe the friends around her weren’t just that, but maybe family too, the place she called home.

_Home sweet home, and yet…_

Her gaze dropped from what was waiting for her in the distance to the boy right beneath her hands, and her heart sank a little in disappointment.

_So bitter._

After their conversation about cooking club a few blocks back, Shinjiro had lapsed into a heavy, jaded silence that did not seem like it was going to end before they reached the front door. He seemed to wear it around himself like iron armor against the carefree chitchat she’d attempted to make with him since then, offering no opinion on what everyone else back at the dorm would say about her ankle once they saw it (“You won’t let Akihiko-senpai chew me out for being careless, will you, Shinji-senpai?” she had pleaded with him, trying to make him laugh but to no avail), and refusing to answer her question about his stance on scarves (“You seem to really like your nice warm hat and coat, Shinji-senpai. Would a scarf be too warm for you?” She asked, hoping he couldn’t read her mind and see the black and maroon scarf she’d already started in sewing club to make for him as a Christmas gift).

Even though he was literally carrying her home, her body wrapped tightly around his, he seemed too far away for her to reach at all.

Minako took a small breath, prayed that Shinjiro was still too lost in his own thoughts to notice how it shuddered around the edges.

She really couldn’t tell him how she felt now…

 

Just then, a light breeze picked up between them, dancing in the divide that had opened up between like it knew that what was about to happen was all its invisible, windy fault, and delivered like a knockout punch right to Minako's nose... a bit of Shinjiro's scent.

He smelled just like the kitchen back at the dorm, delicious and warm like freshly brewed coffee and spices from the cupboard, like arriving to a place where you felt loved and cared for no matter how tough the rest of the day had been. He smelled like home.

“Wow, Senpai…” she cooed, suddenly feeling a little dizzy with delight, with unrestrained affection, and without giving it a second thought, brushed her nose against a pale patch of his neck not obscured by his choppy dark hair,“You smell really nice- woah!”

There must have been some unexpected dip in the sidewalk right then because suddenly Shinjiro was stumbling over his own boots, breaking his private vow of silence to swear frantically under his breath as he worked to keep himself upright and from crashing them both hard into to the pavement below.

_“Shit shit shit shit!”_

When he had finally regained his balance, the first thing he did was snap his head over his shoulder to hiss at her, beat red in the face and narrowed-eyed, “You...you moron! You can’t just go saying weird shit like that outta the blue! And don't,” he let her one uninjured leg dangle free from his side just long enough to pull his beanie extra low and snug over his neck and ears before swiftly returning it over his elbow, fuming, “D-don't just go breathing down my neck like that, either!”

When he turned away from her with a huff, Minako just barely heard him muttering to himself, “No idea...does to a guy.. _.jeez_ …”

He must have been expecting her to start pouting after such a scolding, because he seemed annoyed when she started giggling to herself behind his back. “Yeah? What's so funny about that?”

“Haha! I'm sorry, Shinjiro-senpai!” She beamed at him, suddenly plopping her chin down right atop his shoulder so that they were directly cheek to cheek. “I take it all back. You're actually really stinky. Like a hobo.”

She winked and poked her tongue out at him before pulling back behind him again. “Is that better? Stinky-senpai?”

For a minute, the look he was giving her from under his hat seemed to suggest he was about to drop her cheeky ass right on the curb and leave her to hobble the last stretch back to the dorm alone, but then something bright gleamed in his eyes and his scowl broke into an unexpected smile.

His tone was incredulous as he wondered aloud, “Are you always like this? Or just with me? There’s no way you give everyone else this much trouble. You are...you’re such a pain in my ass, you know that?”

Minako felt a sudden rumbling in his back and chest and realized he was laughing, and something about the way he sounded when he did it, like he was momentarily free of whatever pain had muted his voice and turned the look in his eyes to gravel and broken street glass, made her bubble into  joyful laughter of her own.

By the time they had simmered down to quiet chuckles, the air between them didn’t seem as thick, and once again Shinjiro felt alive and present beneath Minako’s hands.

She sent a quiet prayer of thanks to the wind still stirring up leaves around them, and then another prayer to whatever love god was hopefully maybe listening to her to help her with what she was about to do next.

She still had a chance. She still had the time. She took a deep, deep breath, opened her mouth and-

“I really like that about you, senpai.”

 _Okay, that was_ close _to what I wanted to say but not it exactly-_

“Hmm? What?”

“The way you call me a moron, or annoying. The way you don't hold back when you call me out on stuff, or when you scold me…”

 _Uhhh, hey? What are you doing? What are you_ saying? _Just tell him how you feel already, what are you-_

“Uhh…?”

“You're the only one who talks to me like that. You know, like _normal_ . Like _I'm_ normal. Everyone back at the dorm, at school...they’re always so nice to me. _Too_ nice to me! They're always telling me how smart I am, or what a great leader I am, or how much they love having me as a friend and… and I know that is such a stupid thing to complain about! I know how ungrateful and stupid I sound right now! But…”

 _No...I can’t tell him how I feel. Not until he gets a chance to see how..._ who _I actually am-_

Minako allowed herself to wilt a little against him, leaning her forehead against the back of his head so he wouldn't see that her usual, per-expected sunny smile had clouded into something small and sad on her face.

Once they got back to the dorm, this would be over. Not just the wonderful walk home they had shared together today (well, despite the circumstances of her ankle), but the chance for her to drop the act she was expected to play all the time whenever she wasn’t alone, for Minako to be… the person she really was.

The person who was in love with Shinjiro. The person he deserved to know before making any decisions about if he actually wanted to be with her or not.

Of course Minako wanted to tell him that she loved him. But she also understood that this was the more important thing she had to tell him first. It wouldn’t be fair to either one of them to confess as a stranger, after all.

This knowledge alone gave her the strength to continue on.

“But when everyone is always so nice and encouraging to me all the time, it makes me feel that they think I'm perfect. And I know you already know this, Shinjiro-senpai, but...I'm not perfect. Not at all, not even a _little bit_ . Sometimes I feel like the me that everyone else likes, and the me that is actually, well, _me..._ are two totally different girls. But I always try to be that other girl so I don't let anybody down, you know? I study really late at night even when I'm exhausted so I don't disappoint Mitsuru-senpai with my grades. I don't act scared in Tartarus or on full moon missions even when I can feel myself shaking in my shoes so I don't make Akihiko-senpai or Junpei mad. And when Fuuka or Yukari invite me to hang out with them, I always go along even though sometimes I just want to be by myself and do nothing. Even this,” Minako shook her bruised and swollen ankle as she let out a laugh that was just as busted sounding, “Happened because I love Rio and didn't want to let her down at practice by not giving it my all. I have tried everything, and I mean _everything,_ senpai, to stop being these two separate girls and just be the really smart, really fun, really capable one all the time but the other girl just won’t _leave._ In a single breath she’s telling me to cancel plans with my friends so that I can rest but oh, hey, they’ll hate me forever if I do! She tells me I’m too weak to actually take down Tartarus and that it’s embarrassing I keep playing leader, but I better risk life and limb with every shadow we fight so that I can prove that I actually _am_ a good leader after all! She tells me that...ugh, she tells me that I’m not good enough for you, senpai, that you’re just humoring me whenever you let me tag along with you to the store, or to the shrine, or when you laugh at my jokes or ask me about my day or when you smile at me. But she tells me that even if it’s all fake, it’s worth it, if it means you see me at all, even as a joke. She is,” Minako stopped to loudly sniffle up all the snot that was threatening to begin dripping from her nose, swipe furiously at the tears warping the familiar street around her into the unfamiliar blur of a fisheye lens, and then finally, correct herself, “ _I am_ the worst, most imperfect person I know. _Ughh…!”_

Minako let out a frustrated cry that was not quite a groan and not quite a sob, and fully pressed her face into Shinji's back, taking a moment to fill her lungs with the scent of him and settle down. Her stomach kind of hurt, and her eyes sort of burnt, and her ankle still really fucking hurt too, but the longer she kept herself pressed against him, soaking in his warmth and gently rocking with the sway of his body, the better she began to feel.

Shinjiro offered no response of his own during  this time, no reaction to all the stressful feelings she'd practically vomited down his back, was currently soaking into the back of his beloved coat. He didn't seem to mind the burden of supporting her both literally and figuratively at the same time, or if he did, he did a very good job of hiding it.

For once, she appreciated his silence. It meant everything to her.

Wrapping her arms just a little more snugly around his shoulders, Minako once again perched her chin atop his shoulder and gently tipped their heads together, this time not to tease but to murmur fondly, her voice still stuffy with tears and ugly emotions,  “I guess what I'm trying to say is...thank you. Thank you for treating me just like a normal girl, for being like, the only person who seems to see the real me at all. And… and whether you actually really like the real me or not, and have just been pretending all this time we’ve spent together...I don’t care. I appreciate it so much. I just...really appreciate you, Shinjiro. Thank you.”

Minako dropped the honorific hoping it'd really drive home how much she meant her words, how much he meant to her. She wanted to finally say those last three, very important words too. Really, she did, but she was done with words for the moment, having said more than enough of her share of them to last her a while.

But besides being a two-faced temperamental brat, she was still also very, very stubborn, and couldn’t drop this conversation without at least doing _something_ to let Shinjiro knew what she was actually trying to say, what she was actually feeling about him. Even in a fight against herself, she wouldn’t back down even for a moment.

So before she could think too much about it and change her mind, before she started bawling all over again, she pressed a quick and chaste and kind of salty kiss against Shinjiro's flushed cheek before ducking her own burning face against his shoulder to hide.

He didn't say anything for what seemed like forever, but clinging so tightly against his back, Minako could feel his heart pounding even through his wine colored jacket. His breathing seemed a bit hitched and uneven as well, his chest jumping under her hands, and suddenly worried that she had said too much, _did_ too much, began to try to pull away and shrug herself off his back.

“S-sorry! I just said...I mean, I just did way too much!  You know, the dorm is just like right down the street, I can make it from here by myself, you can- _eep!”_

With a growl rumbling like thunder deep in his chest, Shinjiro had trapped her legs in an even tighter grip at his sides, and bounced her up higher and closer against his back again, effectively trapping her into place. “Stay put.” He commanded, his voice low in warning as he picked up the pace.

For a minute that seemed to be all he was going to say to her, and Minako was left to simply cling him in confused, anxious silence when he finally spoke again,

“Yeah, I know you're not perfect. You're far from it, actually. And you don't do a good a job at hiding it like you think you do.”

Minako blinked once. Twice. _Well! This was a little unexpected._

“You are too damn stubborn for your own good, you never know when to call it quits. And even when you suffer for it, you just grit your teeth and push through that too because you’re too thick headed to take ‘no’ for an answer. You also have a shit temper, especially for a girl. Yeah it takes you awhile to get pissed off, but when you finally get there, you're like a damn bomb going off. You're real pushy and you're always in everyone else's business, wanting to play guardian angel and help them through all their problems even while you got your own shit to worry about. And you are such a brat sometimes, always teasing and making dumb jokes and laughing like you're the world's best comedian even when you’re not actually funny. It's not wonder you and that Iori guy are such pals, you’re practically one and the same.”

Shinjiro finally looked over his shoulder at her, sitting there wide-eyed and opened mouth, to accuse her of what he considered her most heinous trait of all face to face. “And you hate green peppers and have to be reminded to eat your other vegetables when they’re not in bowl of ramen. What are you, a kid?”

He paused for a minute before shaking his head and facing forward once more, away from the stock still statue that she’d become. “No… even Ken eats his vegetables, you know?”

As Shinjiro lapsed back into silence, apparently having said every grievance he had with her, Minako had to admit… she was a little stunned. No one else had ever rattled off a list of all her imperfections at her like that before, mainly because to them, it didn't seem like she had any. So to stand so corrected, to be not gently cradled offof  her pedestal but spiked as hard as one of Rio's punishing serves off it it… well, if Minako was being completely honest with herself, it felt…

_Pretty refreshing!_

“Woow, senpai.” She whistled low, impressed with his brutal honesty, and gave his shoulder a solid pat to show that while she had taken everything he had said into her spongy, vulnerable heart, there were no hard feelings between them. She felt cleansed, like a horrible pressure had been taken off her heart and mind. She felt empty, but not hollow. She just felt… _light._ “Why don't you tell me how you really feel, huh?”

And then, even after all that, she managed to crack a grin at him. It wasn’t as pretty, or as bright or as big as the smile she shared with everyone else like dime a dozen candy, the one she called her “sunshine” smile, but rather it was small on her lips, and it glowed more than it sparkled. If she had to name this one, she’d probably call it her “The first star that shows up kind of too early and is just barely visible through the haze of light pollution over the cityscape” smile.

But in the very least it was genuine. It was an actual smile, from the actual her.

Shinjiro stared at it, at her, for a very long time. Minako was surprised he didn’t feel a knot in his neck, or maybe he did and just didn’t care. Then, abruptly shrugging beneath her grip, Shinjiro scoffed and accepted her challenge. “Alright then.”

And to her surprise, shock, awe, delight, wonder, _absolute pure bliss-_  he swiveled his head back and kissed her full on the mouth, his lips a little cold from the autumn air but so soft and wonderful and electric on her own, and gone before she even had the chance to kiss him back.

_Oh._

“Oh!” She squeaked lamely, all popular leader bravado and weepy sadness stolen right from her lips. She knew Shinjiro could already feel her heart thrumming violently on his back, but clutched him tighter anyways. “O-oh.”

“Y-yeah, you're all those things. You aren't perfect. But you know what...Minako?”

She almost didn't hear him. Her head was somewhere far off of her shoulders, floating like a pink balloon in a sky that was full of fluffy white Koro-chan clouds, where cherubs in baseball caps and boxing gloves strummed harps and slurped ramen full of stars, and healthy vegetables. But Shinjiro's voice was a red ribbon that gently pulled her back down to Earth, and she stared at him with a grin she knew must of looked real dopey, as imperfect as it could be.

“What?” She breathed back, though she had an idea. He could make her believe in anything, if she was being honest with herself.

Pink in the cheeks, Shinjiro graced her with another one of his rare, beautiful smiles.

“I like you, anyways.”

  


Minako felt like she could've carried them both back to the dorm at that point, sprained ankle be damned. In fact, she felt  strong enough to believe that maybe this was okay, that she was okay, that maybe even with the number of the Lost increasing and the next full moon rolling up in just a few days on the fourth, everything would turn out okay because Shinjiro was here, and what more, he was right here by her side.

_I love you._

She knew she could say it now and mean it. She even knew that she could say it, and that he would say it back and mean it too. She could tell by the light in his eyes, by the way he gently murmured, “Come on, let’s get back…” and waited for her to nod before starting down the last block to the dorm.

She could, but for now, with Shinjiro warm and steady in her arms and the late September air cool on her face… .Minako was content to simply just float on home.

She could always tell him later.


End file.
